Xenophobia: Tit-for-tat approach not solution – NIPR boss

By Ola AjayiIbadan – NATIONAL President, Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, Dr Rotimi Oladele has said that the issue of xenophobic attacks in South Africa should be handled carefully noting that tit-for-tat approach is not the solution.

He said this in Ibadan after the first 2017 quarterly lecture organised by NIPR, Oyo State with the theme, “Public Relations practice yesterday, today and future: implications and challenges for practitioners in changing world of business and governance” which held at the Premier Hotel, Ibadan at the weekend.

According to him, with the enormous role that Nigeria played in the emancipation of blacks in South Africa, it is unfair that the people we fought for should pay us back in bad coin.

He said some of the South Africans who engaged in the unnecessary attacks must have lost touch with their history.

He said, “As far as Africa is concerned as a continent, Nigeria is a big brother and we have been paying prices of brotherhood for long. We spent our time, money and resources in dismantling apartheid.”

” We sponsored a lot of South Africans at tertiary levels in all our universities across the country. Our civil servants even donated money from their salaries in the 80s. But, South Africans of today who have lost touch with their past are now paying us back in bad coin.

But, that doesn’t mean we should use a tit-for-tat approach “.

Warning Niger Delta militants who had given a 30-day ultimatum for South Africans companies in Nigeria to move, the NIPR boss said the outcome of this threat would be counter productive.

He added that if we scared the companies out of the country, it would adverse effects on our labour market saying that 80-90 per cent of employees in these companies are Nigerians and if the companies are forced to leave, it means these people would be rendered jobless.

On challenges facing NIPR as a professional body, he, the Oyo State Chairman of NIPR, Mrs Tola Ajayi and the guest lecturer, Pa Adekunle Salu said funding, acceptability are main challenges of the institute.

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